Camp Likely’s board of directors is worried that a proposal for a new provincial park in the Cariboo Chilcotin could derail its effort to establish more permanent facilities at the summer kids camp.The camp, located on Quesnel Lake at Faux Bay, has operated for nearly 30 years. Recently, camp organizers had wanted to expand to include a 13-acre parcel of land on the camp’s western border; that would be in addition to the seven-acre plot they currently lease in 10-year increments from the Ministry of Natural Resource Operations.However, the Ministry of Environment has proposed a new provincial park boundary that would annex that same 13-acre plot as well as utilize Crown land on the camp’s eastern border and to the southwest. Elmer Thiessen, board chairperson, says the camp isn’t opposed to the creation of a provincial park nearby. In fact, he says a park will be complementary to the camp. The problem is that the park boundaries as proposed would incorporate the land the camp would like to utilize. “Our 20-year plan requires that land. It’s the preferred land by geography,” he says of the piece that has beach access and is located on the camp’s western boundary.A year and a half ago Thiessen’s organization had been encouraged to apply for a lease for the 13 acres in question and had done some preliminary work to that end but then was told of the Ministry of Environment’s interest in creating a provincial park in the area. Camp officials met with the ministry last spring to talk about the potential conflict and expressed their desire for the ministry to move the proposed park boundary further west. Thiessen says he felt at the time that the issue was being addressed until a Ministry of Environment advertisement requesting public comment on the ministry’s draft park proposals on the creation of several new small parks and additions to existing parks totalling approximately 21,000 hectares in the Cariboo Chilcotin alerted him otherwise. Thiessen fears that if the public doesn’t tell the ministry about the camp’s importance it will lose its chance to develop more permanent buildings, establish a high-ropes course, an archery range, downhill mountain bike trails and other amenities. According to the provincial park proposal, the land to the north seems to be the only available piece for expansion, and Thiessen says he’s been told by people that it’s not desirable for developing. Camp officials are eager to expand westward because the land is more suitable for development. The current site is comprised mostly of “fill” that is not stable enough on which to erect permanent buildings, Thiessen says. “We don’t want to leave the impression that Camp Likely will not exist if this doesn’t work out but it will dampen our dreams,” Thiessen says. Each year Camp Likely hosts 200 staff and children. Officials from the Ministry of Environment did not return calls by press time.